Bulgaria will no longer send weapons to Ukraine, the country’s Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov announced Tuesday.
The move cements the new Bulgarian government’s opposition to EU support for Ukraine after Russia-aligned Prime Minister Rumen Radev won a parliamentary election in a landslide in April. Bulgaria has sent 13 aid packages to Kyiv since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, but Radev has described the Ukrainian cause as “doomed.”
“We have already made it clear that the war in Ukraine will not be resolved on the battlefield. We are witnessing a war of attrition, and no matter how much weaponry is amassed, the only result is the loss of human lives. It is time to sit down at the negotiating table,” Stoyanov said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Radev, a former fighter pilot, has cited his military experience in support of his position that Ukraine should negotiate peace with Russia, and suggested in May that the EU should lead peace talks.
Although the country’s new government has taken a friendlier position toward the Kremlin, it has refrained from open confrontation with Brussels over Ukraine. Bulgaria is the poorest country in the EU and relies heavily on EU funding.
In addition to halting aid for Ukraine, Stoyanov unveiled the government’s plan to increase Bulgaria’s defense spending to the NATO-mandated 5 percent of GDP as Radev had previously promised.